Monday, November 30, 2009

Codeine is a band from New York. Its genre is slowcore / indie rock / sadcore. This LP is their first release. Here it is a nice comparison with other bands of similar genres: "Codeine pioneered the slowcore and sadcore subgenres of indie rock, but with a more experimental attitude than other bands in the genre, such as Low, Idaho and Red House Painters.".The track list is the following:

A1

D

A2

Gravel Bed

A3

Pickup Song

A4

New Year's

B1

Second Chance

B2

Cave-In

B3

Cigarette Machine

B4

Old Things

My favourite tracks are: "D", "New Year's" and "Old Things". It isn't as experimental as some of their other record here.

Started playing in 2005, Noiserv is a solo project of David Santos. One of the promisses I see in Portuguese contemporary music, this artist blends many instruments together to create some dreamy melodies. He uses instruments such as: vocals, guitar, melodica, metallophone, bells, synths, acordeon, omnichord, megaphone, effects, toys, musicbox, stylophone and more. His style is certainly unique... alternative, folk, indie are the closest genres I can find similarities with Noiserv's work. He was on the [now dead] portuguese label Merzbau.Check his myspace here.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Harmonic 313 is a solo off-shoot of Mark's Harmonic 313 project with Dave Brinkworth, focusing on "Detroit-Style" hip-hop. Its music is smooth and useful if you're into chilling alone or with some friends.Brinkworth's music is characterised by an omnipresent spine-chilling wobble bass, nice beats (sometimes with kind of high pitches that fit with the music and help shape it) and on some songs, rap can be heard.The track list is the following:

1.Dirtbox

2

Cyclotron

3

No Way Out

4

Music Substitute System

5

Köln

6

Galag-A

7

Word Problems

8

Battlestar - eLZhi, ,

9

Cyclotron C64 Sid

10

Call to Arms

11

Flaash

12

Don't Panic

13

Falling Away - Steve Spacek

14

When Machines Exceed Human Intelligence

15

Quadrant 3

Try hearing the whole album. The album may not fit sometimes as a whole, due to the songs versatility.However, this can be pointed out as a plus in Dave Brinkworth's career. My favourite songs are: "Quadrant 3", "Dirtbox", "No Way Out" and "Word Problems".The album was released in 2009 on Warp Records.This album has 2 parts: the part 1 can be downloaded here and the part 2 can be downloaded here. Just click on the "here's".

This is one of my favourite albums this year, perhaps. "Jewellery"... what an awesome work it is! I love how they can be at the same time a lo-fi band and keep a classy touch constantly in their records. It's Micachu and her backing band, the Shapes... You got to love them! Even Björk loves them!I first heard of them in 2008, thanks to the Patrick O'Dell's website. They started in August 2008 and released this album in March 9th 2009. This album received mainly excellent reviews. Check these reviews out: Metacritic's, Drowned in Sound's, The Guardian's, All Music's, BBC Music's, FACT Magazine's, The Times' and Pitchfork's. I also advise you to hear this album... It's the debut album of some distorted awkward pop, with some "punky energy" as many critics recall it. It has nothing cliché, it's a new own particular genre, that has made them a hype band with a relevant somewhat-underground indie cult behind them.The track list of this album is the following:

"Vulture" (2:49)

"Lips" (1:21)

"Sweetheart" (0:53)

"Eat Your Heart" (2:20)

"Curly Teeth" (2:27)

"Golden Phone" (2:43)

"Ship" (1:59)

"Floor" (1:22)

"Just In Case" (2:46)

"Calculator" (3:09)

"Wrong" (3:35)

"Turn Me Well" (2:58)

"Guts" (3:12)

"Hardcore" (1:33) is an unlisted hidden track at the end of the record.

My favourite tracks are [not in a particular order]: "Golden Phone", "Sweetheart", Eat your heart", "Curly Teeth", "Wrong" and "Turn me Well". What, I just said I prefer almost half of the album? No wonder! It has lots of cool songs on it. The album's lenght is around 31 minutes and 57 seconds.By the way, last Saturday, this is November 21st 2009, I saw Micachu and the Shapes live at the Loft, here in Lisbon (I also got the opportunity to see a bit of Jon Hopkins show next). It was awesome and what I find more peculiar, is that some of their songs are even more appealing live, like the song "Wrong" for example. I also got the chance to take a pic with them, along with my friends. I'd love to see them live again. Oh, their t-shirts are also original and worth the price! Go grab yourself a Micachu goody!If you want to hear the album, click here. Hope you like this album.PS:I'm going to post a live review about Micachu and Shape's performance at the Loft, when I have enough free time to do such thing.

Next, is the song "Golden Phone" which is about suicide, according what Mica said live:

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Do you like COIL? Do you like Throbbing Gristle? Do you like COUM Transmissions? Do you like Psychic TV? Do you like Soisong? Do you think I'm starting to get boring?I asked you these questions because a former member of all these bands, Peter Christopherson, decided to create a new project after COIL's end. Threshold Houseboys Choir was the name chosen by Peter. It can be labeled as experimental electronic composition, along with some noise, oriental-ish sounds, etc. Wiki also entitles it as "Post-Industrial Exotica". When performing live, this project evolves to a different stage: videos of some rituals occuring in Thailand, morbid, gore and violent clips along and mind-warping at the same time are added to the performance of Threshold Houseboys Choir. THBC's myspace can be viewed by clicking here."The Threshold HouseBoys Choir is a musical guise for Peter Christopherson, announced in 2005 as a follow up endeavor to his former group Coil. Despite the name, it is a solo project which relies heavily on computer generated vocals, of which he is formally credited as the "director." The name was derived from a play on words, combining the terms houseboy, house of boys, boys' choir, and Threshold House.[1] THBC is stationed in Krung Thep, Thailand."

The Amulet Edition was sold on THBC's tour and now can be bought on the official merchandise website, here, or on eBay or Amazon at astonishingly high prices. It comes on a fine velvet pocket, I think, which over 3 cd's.The track list is the following:1.Be Happy 16: 122.Distonto 23: 163.Ikoreek 22: 154.The Hangman's Ball 19: 315.As X is to Geff 10: 206.Khun Cap Taxi 18: 037.Lowly Low 13: 428.There and Back 5:099.The Day Moon Died 15:51

Next, if you want to, you can hear some samples of the songs: "The Day the Moon Died", "The Hangman's Ball" and "Distonto". My favourite tracks are: "Be Happy", "Distonto", "Lowly Low" and "There and Back".If you want to buy the album go to Threshold House's official website and find some THBC merchandise.If you want to hear the part 1 (which features the first 4 songs) click here and/or the part 2 (which has the last tracks and the track from the 3rd CD, which is the last one) click here.

Friday, November 20, 2009

According to this musician, Jellowaste, he got his looks due to: "...this transformation [due to the fact Tom Cruise injected him with Biotoxin 45 ~ a chemical that was supposed to kill him) was so incredible, the 10 foot radiotransformative aura emitted during the changes turned his car into a neon yellow Firebird ~ complete with a radiation symbol on the hood."

My favourite songs are: "Dokytrsle", "Dump Slump" and also "Jellybeanery FT The Zodworths" (this one has a collab with one of the members of the band, that is now extinct, Din Glorious). The record's lenght is around 24 minutes and 55 seconds.Jellowaste's myspace can be accessed here.You can get it here (it has around 25 megabytes by the way).

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Big Black's career started around 1982. They didn't found much mainstream success, however they've influenced the early industrial rock scene and have been remarked as a "must" for any person who's into noise. Their use of provocative lyrics garnered much attention.This album entitled "Atomizer" (which is their debut album), as received good reviews .Take this into consideration: All Music gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Their brutal slashing guitars and great use of drum machines were widely influencial. This album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I know this sounds awkward, but the singer's [Steve Albini] voice of Gray Matter's vocals.The track list for this album is:

My favourite ones are: "Passing Complexion", "Stinking Drunk", "Big Money" and also "Kerosene". The album's lenght is 37 minutes and 37 seconds. The whole album is really dense and has a lot of cohesion along the song's transitions. Some people who aren't into "noise" should think about this fact: this work has more thoughts behind than it seems.You can get the album here too.

Kap Bambino formed around 2001 and nowadays they even have their own independent label. Kap Bambino are Caroline Martial and Orion Bouvier. Released in 2006, this album features awesome synth-ish tunes from a great electro group that hails from Bordeaux, France. Their music is characterised by wild distorted female vocals and mind-twisting electronic mixes. This album is no exception and has received positives reviews.The track list is the following:

1.

Zero Life

1:53

2.

New Breath

2:09

3.

Save

3:11

4.

Took Life

2:10

5.

Hunger Texas

2:29

6.

Seed

3:15

7.

Mess In The Ruins

2:03

8.

Hey !

2:07

9.

Night Vision Ocean

2:31

10.

Kaos Killer

2:46

11.

Warriors

2:10

12.

More Machine

4:09

My favourite tracks are: "Hey!", "Mess In The Ruins", "New Breath" and "Seed". But, as kind of usual, I advise you to hear the entire album.You can get this album here or promote the artist by buying it on some eBay vultures or on their label's official website here.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

DJ Scotch Egg, one of the most respectable icons in an 8bit experimental scene perhaps, he sure knows how to produce great sounds. He has influences like Karlheinz Stockhausen, John Cage, Steve Reich among others. Imagine gabber played with a Game Boy.Now add extreme distorted vocals. Getting sick? Next you'll mix that with KFC themed songs. Finally, many covers of classic compositions, ranging from Bach to Grieg. It's DJ Scotch Egg what you guys are hearing!...The track list of this debut album of this colossal genius musician is:

KFC Core

Scotch Chicken

Tetris Wonderland

Scotch Heads

Scotch Grime

KFC Song

Scotch Forest

Scotch Attack

Acid Boy Two

Scotch Land

Scotch Out

Knock Knock Sandwich Next Door / Scotch Orchestra

Listen to these: "Scotch Chicken", "Scotch Forest" ("In the hall of the mountain Kind" by Edvard Grieg sabotaged) and also "Acid Boy Two".There's a review that Stylus Magazine made concerning this work - read it here.You can get this album here.

My Bloody Valentine, my bloody valentine... What can we say about how paradoxal sometimes love gets? This album is like a potion of all the antagonic feelings there are in a romantic relationship. All of its atonality and a cacophonic indeterminancy caracterize romance. There's a reason for My Bloody Valentine's debut album to be named "Loveless".The track list is the following:

The songs "Only Shallow" and "Sometimes" are the ones I advise you to hear. "Sometimes" has an ambiguous sense of a shallow happiness, if that's possible at all: the person who hears it doesn't know if it is proposed to make you cry or to make you feel good, kind of in a nostalgic way.When this album came out, there were many music critics and melomaniacs that immediately recognized the importance of this work in contemporary music, particularly in the developing of the "shoegaze" genre and as inspiration for many bands. All music, Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau, NME, Popmatters, The Quietus and many other entities said marvelous things about this album.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Ok, today I was seing DJ Scotch Egg's myspace (one of the best 8bit and glitch DJ's I currently know of) and I found a post on his page about a strange thing called "Cacophonator II". What's that? It's kind of an instrument you link to another musical instrument (or whatever can be linked to) and it simply mutilates in many ways the sounds you produce. It's really interesting, it can make some good noisy combinations. It has a high price, yeah, it's 250 euros (around 325 dollars). For more info, check out the official website here.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

CFCF is a great promise within genres like electro. He has done awesome remixes and has some of them on his myspace. He introduces himself by modestly saying: "Hi, I am CFCF and I make music". Some of his influences are: Boredoms, Goblin, The Durutti Column, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac & Vangelis.He released his first EP on January of 2009, being a great start, I say.Next month he'll release his first album entitled "Continent" (don't miss this one!).Check out his myspace.

Formed in 2006, this American indie rock band from Long Beach [in California], have been releasing awesome inventive songs on rad EP's. This debut album called "Tentacles", released in early 2009 was relatively well evaluated by many music critics (like NME, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork) and some hype-bloggers. However, according to what I've heard in this work, I can assure that it isn't that bad as Pitchfork evaluates it [6.7 out of 10...]. As a matter of fact, it's catchy, a cheerful psych-punk band doing their own music, being [as many bands of nowadays are trying] difficult to be inserted in a particular music genre.The track list is the following:

"Painless Sleep" - 2:16

"Dust" - 2:27

"Time Erased" - 3:37

"Andrew" - 3:34

"Vapour Trail" - 2:18

"Tentacles" - 1:54

"Until the Sun Dies (Part 1)" - 2:50

"Memorized" - 3:53

"Glacier" - 3:01

"Foot of the Mountain" - 0:25

"Your Spears" - 2:24

"Swollen Sky" - 4:12

"Several Tongues" - 7:11

The whole album is worth hearing, however I advise you to hear the song "Andrew".You can view their myspace and current tour on their myspace.You can get the album right here too.

SPK formed in 1978 in Sydney, Australia, was a 1980s and early 1990s industrial music and noise music group. SPK stands for many names. Probably, the most important of them all, that influenced two members of the band, Graeme Revell and Neil Hill, was Sozialistisches Patientenkollektiv. This album that I'm reviewing is about the post-industrial SPK, more commercially oriented (however, I consider this album to be an exception, since it isn't as synthpop-ish as "Machine Age Voodoo", the previous album). This one is more about electronic orchestral work: it can also be labeled as contemporary classical ambient.The track list is the following:

My favourite tracks are: "In the Dying Moments", "In Flagrante Delicto", "Necropolis" and "The Garden of Earthly Delights". The album's lenght is 48 minutes and 10 seconds.The song "In Flagrante Delicto" is marvelous and features angelic vocals, backed up by haunting and obscure dark ambient sounds.You can get the album here.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Thanks everybody, for visiting this nasty audible place. Keep refreshing this spot on the internet, since I update almost daily, talking about new and old music subjects, from almost all genres. Glad there's been someone enjoying this work of mine. I'm also thinking about a musical project of mine [we'll talk about this later].Stay tuned and thank you again!

Almost one year ago, I watched some of my favourite lifetime gigs (until now, this is)- Drop Dead Festival. One of the best underground events in the whole world, this deathrock, post-punk, new wave, art punk, etc. This day of D.D.F., I got to see the following bands: Schwefelgelb (Germany), Grabba Grabba Tape (Spain), Din Glorious (USA), Kitchen and the Plastic Spoons (Sweden) and Sixteens (USA). This day of the festival was held at Santiago Alquimista, near Lisbon's São Jorge Castle.I only got to see a small part of Schwefelgelb's gig, but it was really cool and gave me some insight of what this festival would be the rest of that night.Then, Grabba Grabba Tape played: lots of vocoders, fast beats and good vibes.Next were Din Glorious: by far, the best gig of that night. I didn't have any opportunity to hear their music before going to the festival, so it was kind of a colossal and traumatic surprise. Lots of 8bit sounds; a keytar with a fat rad guy; a freak singing and jumping around, getting at the same time free beers by the bar; a strange masked guy playing synths, coordinating sounds on a Mac and playing drums to exhaustion: these were Din Glorious, one of the best live shows I've seen to date. At some point, the keytarist cut his forehead and then started running to the crowd but slipped on a beer bottle and got hurt. Then the singer got naked somehow. It was pure chaos and pleasure for many people's ears.Songs like " Bork like a dork" made the room echo while everybody was screaming "bork, bork, bork!". Hypnotic beats, dashing sounds, after all it was a memorable epic gig, it's how I describe Din Glorious' performance.Kitchen and the Plastic Spoons gig was also really good: they didn't play for like 20 years, since the 80's! So they were kind of rusty, although they rehearsed in Sweden, before coming to Lisbon.Finally, Sixteens played. I only got to see like 10 minutes of the gig, before I had left the room. It seemed nice, mixing some perfomance on stage with the good dark electro music they produce, straight from San Francisco.After that, which I didn't got to see, there were many people DJ'ing around, like Polina (D.D.F.'s organiser) and Daniel (Din Glorious' vocalist).Drop Dead Festival's myspace can be accessed here. There are also some pics of this event on their myspace, right here.

You can see, if you want to, a video I've edited and filmed ot that day:

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